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Comment: Sue Denham: Crummy police force could get the commissioner it deserves

Now that Pat Byrne is preparing to surrender his spurs as garda commissioner, the jockeying for a successor has begun. It’s not the candidates who are lobbying furiously, but the powerful garda associations.

The chief superintendents’ choice is said to be Kevin Carty, an assisant commissioner who, until he was dispatched to sort out garda corruption in Donegal, was best known for posing as a drug dealer on board a ship stocked with cannabis. As this was linked to the Urlingford shenanigans, we doubt if he’ll be mentioning the episode at his interview, however.

Fachtna Murphy, assistant garda commissioner, is considered Byrne’s personal favourite. But watch Noel Conroy, deputy commissioner in charge of operations, who is the favourite among the mandarins in the department of justice. His promotion would require a change in the legislation as commissioners must serve seven-year contracts and he has less than that to go before